The Politics of Social Care in Japan
How Central–Local Interactions Shaped Child Allowances and Elderly Medical Care
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11196471 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ryotaro Takahashi (0000-0002-0104-326X, Faculty of Economics Keio University Tokyo Japan, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-09 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Policy and Administration (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0144-5596 • E-ISSN: 1467-9515 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/spol.70028 |
| OpenAlex | W4416058885 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 24 |
This study examines why Japan's social care reforms of the early 1970s led to a generous elderly care system but only modest and narrowly targeted support for children. Although child allowances and free medical care for the elderly were introduced almost simultaneously, they followed sharply divergent paths. Both policies were initially blocked at the national level owing to fiscal constraints imposed by the Ministry of Finance. They first gained traction in progressive local governments, notably under Governor Ryōkichi Minobe's Tokyo administration. These local precedents prompted the central government to adopt similar measures and shaped the final design of national policies. For child allowances, the central government incorporated local government contributions that exceeded Tokyo's benefit levels, thus reducing the national fiscal burden. For elderly care, the Ministry of Finance tried to impose a 10% beneficiary co‐payment, but dramatic international economic shifts weakened its control, eventually enabling fully subsidised medical care. Subsequent shocks, particularly the Oil Crisis, curbed further expansion and cemented a care regime heavily favouring older citizens. By highlighting a two‐way iterative dynamic between central and local actors, this study contributes to debates on welfare state formation, historical institutionalism, and policy diffusion, challenging traditional one‐directional models of policy diffusion
Beneficiary · Government (linguistics · Governor · Medical care · Politics · Social policy · Social security · Welfare · Welfare state · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Japanese History and Culture · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Politics in Time
Regressive Taxation and the Welfare State
Welfare and Capitalism in Postwar Japan
Transformation of the Intimate and the Public in Asian Modernity
Comparative framework for care regime analysis in East Asia
Child care and elder care regimes in Japan
Varieties of familialism
All in the family? Migrants, nationhood, and care regimes in Asia and North America
Introduction
Policy Diffusion
Ideology, Learning, and Policy Diffusion
The Old People Boom and Japanese Policy Making
Under Treasury Control
Using Geographic Information Systems to Study Interstate Competition
Leaving the West, rejoining the East? Gender and family in Japan's semi-compressed modernity
The Global Diffusion of Public Policies
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |